Frontrow / Google Display Network
Google Australia & Sydney Opera House
Issue 25 | December 2012
Agency
Mark M&C Saatchi
Creative Team
Creative Directors: Hamish Stewart, Chris Little Copywriter: Hamish Stewart Art Director: Chris Little Digital Designer: Penn Li, Beau Thein
Production Team
Developers: Chris Martin, Allen Kelley Digital Production: Justin Van Emmerik, Sharon Ireland, Rachel Zhang, Roger Chapman, Joanna O’Bryan, Kate Egan Producers: Joanna O’Bryan, Sharon Ireland, Rachel Zhang, Kate Egan Content Production: Kite, Viocorp
Other Credits
Account Service: Simone Blakers, Amy Freidlander, Nick Griffiths, Andrew Henderson
Date
May - June 2012
Background
Google competed with other online ad networks for the attention of media buyers. But they wanted to demonstrate that their online solutions could deliver more than just clicks - they could deliver a genuinely emotional connection between a brand and its audience.
Idea
The solution was an innovative online experience that caught the world’s attention: FRONTROW, powered by Google. FRONTROW was a partnership between Google and Vivid LIVE, a ten-day music festival at Sydney Opera House. Audiences worldwide could experience being in the front row at four key concerts from The Temper Trap, Imogen Heap and Amon Tobin. The YouTube channel featured a unique, custom-built gadget that enabled users not just to watch the live stream but to switch camera angles, zoom in and out, shoot high-quality images, and share them with friends by email or social media, just as if they were in the front row.
Results
The key metrics for FRONTROW were Reach and Engagement. By either measure, the campaign was an astonishing success – especially given that the four events lasted a total of just 10 hours.
Reach:
The live stream received 916,000 live playbacks. 573,000 of these views were from across the globe, including the UK, US, France, Hungary, Poland, Canada, Germany, NZ and the Netherlands.
The YouTube channel received 269,757 unique visitors, over 26,000 visitors per hour. FRONTROW was also reported widely in online media, particularly music blogs focused on our target audience.
Engagement:
The audience watched 63,000 hours of live content during the four events, taking 66,000 shots.
Fans across the globe loved it, commenting particularly on the technological innovation.
FRONTROW proved that Google solutions delivered more than just clicks, by connecting brand and audience in a truly powerful way. So much so, Sydney Opera House decided to make it a regular feature of their live-streamed events.
Our Thoughts
I can remember seeing a previous attempt at this, when viewers could play at being producers and choose cameras and angles to watch a concert. But not as fluently as this.
Go and have a play at: http://www.youtube.com/user/sohfestival?feature=results_main
This is the future of televised sport let alone music.
You can pan, zoom and take snaps and then share them. As and when your PC and your telly become one and the same, this is what you’ll be doing, transforming events into personal experiences.
This failed to win anything at the Asia Spikes, probably because it looks like a big technology thing rather than a good old-fashioned advertising idea, but at Directory we all thought this was amazing.